ADARA

Icy mist clawed its way out of the Oath necklace. Green and purples intertwined as Gustul tugged on the reins to stop the horse carriage from speeding over the road. It burned in her hands, and she scrambled back when the pressure yawned, and through a ghostly mirage, two bodies hit the wood, with one of them groaning in pain. Arrows protruded out from their shoulders and back. The other one remained still, and limp, their gray armor soaked with mud and crimson. Gustul whipped his head back, vaulting over the driver's seat to loom over the black-haired body. "Reyn!"

It hit her in the face with the truth. "Fenrer!" Adara gasped and rolled him over onto his back, her eyes finding the wound before drawing to his clammy, ashen face. Mist twirled in the wound, stemming the blood flow, but more oozed out with each passing second. One hand over it, she held out Yuven's oath necklace, biting on her tongue.

"Close it once they're through, don't wait for me."

Gustul heaved Reyn into a more comfortable position, with the king of Haneka losing consciousness from the motion. Adara snapped her attention back down to Fenrer at his continued silence. His blood stuck to her fingers, but a deep growl sounded down her spine, shaking her to her core and a sense of reality.

"Little Moon."

Adara frowned and drew Yuven's oath necklace closer to her as it pulsed with the opening he left to send them through. It reverberated her spine, but the call sounded out again, weak and distant. The voice was familiar, somehow. It brought a name to her lips when mist entwined over her fingers and crawled up her arm. If you need my magick, take it. Take it, save him. Let me save someone for once. Her mind numbed to Fenrer's blood sticking between her fingers, until the voice called out one final time.

"Little Moon."

Mist coagulated in front of her into the near formless shape of a wolf. From Gustul's apparent lack of reaction, the creature showed itself only to her. It solidified as her magick poured into the wound, her silver flames striking ever deeper. Its pupilless eyes raised to her, and it crept closer. "Kon?" she whispered to herself. Her heart hammered at his appearance, and the dread of implication shattered it in turn. His nose twitched, and he lowered his muzzle closer to Fenrer's soaked forehead. "Tell me what to do, how to help him." Tell me I can save one life, for the many I couldn't. Don't tell me it's too late. Ashes burnt her skin as she held the door open, for Yuven to come through, to return to his Oathbound, disobeying his instruction.

"He is very weak, Little Moon," Kon called out over the unseen twilight sea, though he was near nose to nose with her. "I was summoned by sunlight — by a covenant of blood. I am doing what I can to keep him away from the bridge, but it is draining my essence... my soul. I do not think I can keep this up for long." Weariness filled the wise, empty eyes. "Keep pouring your magick through the wound, I will not take anymore than necessary."

I have more than enough magick.

It burned at her skin with a zap of rejection, and she tugged her hand back as Kon dissipated and the mist around her arm detangled itself. Yuven's necklace shuddered in her unbloodied hand, and a bubble of pressure spread around the cart. Her scream left her lips when Yuven dropped from nothingness, steadying himself, uninjured, breathing and alive. He snapped to Gustul in an instant. "If he's alive, get this cart turned around and get us to Sivaport!"

Gustul let go of Reyn after checking the arrows, leaving them to jump over to the driver's seat. Hand raised, a glyph bounced across his fingers and swept downwards into the ground below. Adara held onto Fenrer tight when the wheels rumbled, and the carriage turned with the glyph to put their backs in the direction of Sungrove. Reins in his hands, he cracked them and sent the carriage careening forwards down the path of dawn. Wind slapped against her cheeks at the speed Gustul rushed them. Adara choked on concern, and bit down on her tears when Yuven fell to his knees beside Fenrer the moment they were on the move.

"Molvisaliz," Yuven's expression squeezed as tears fell down his face and he cradled Fenrer in his arms once more. "Touvo'jo. I'm so sorry for what I've done — how I treated you." He slid fangs over his lips, and shook his head in a wild motion. "You called out to me for help and I didn't answer in time." His feathers stood up straight in the wind, and he adjusted his sitting position, with his clothes stained red with his Oathbound's blood. Her own tears slipped down her face, but the numbness swallowed all straight to her fingertips, collapsing into silver ash. Her hands, soaked with her inability to save anyone with her supposed magick beyond comprehension. Its worth dwindled to her, and she squeezed her fists, trying to wipe away Fenrer's blood on anything but her skin.

Jisa, Tara... how many more people must I lose?

"Yuven...?"

Fenrer's voice snapped her out of the spiral of loss. A chirp left Yuven's throat when he snapped his head down. "Syu, Molvisaliz. I am here."

Green galaxies swirled around his pupils when he raised them to peer at their faces. It reflected the sky above their head, a bundle of weary stars when Fenrer's hand rested over the wound once more, but he overturned it when she brought her hand into his, to feel the warmth lest something stole it away from her. "I... think I have king's blood," he offered too late. "Please don't hate me, Yuven for my inability to do anything correctly, for not being capable... I made a mistake... I couldn't help you when it mattered the most, I abandoned you back on those cliffs—"

"Do not speak such things. In fact, stop talking," Yuven chittered with a hiss through his nose. "We're heading back to Sivaport, Maria will set you right." Yuven's gaze trailed over to the lonely king, who hadn't roused.

"He saved my life again." Adara focused on Fenrer's ashen face when his free hand clutched at Yuven's collar. "I know you have reasons," his voice came out pained, weak, and faded. "Reasons to treat those with Reyn's power with disdain, I never meant to make you feel like I was dismissing such facts." He winced into Yuven. "But, Reyn is a good man. I would never ask you to have faith in anything unless I was all but certain of it." His gaze drew up to Yuven again. "I'm sorry."

"I said stop talking," Yuven pleaded with an unsettled rattle from his throat. "You have no reason to be sorry to me of all people. Just live, I'll consider that enough. If you die..." He clutched Fenrer closer. "Nex, I will not allow it."

Adara squeezed Fenrer's hand when it slacked, but when she checked on him, his attention remained rapt on Yuven, drawing over the unseen. Opal flames burnt his pupils and swallowed the galaxies until nothing remained of them. Yuven jerked, but stilled when Fenrer bounced his fist off his chest.

"Of cold blood, warm love, the egg cracks. Hear me sing," Fenrer's voice came out with a terrible, eerie strength. It faded into nothingness, and he went limp.

Adara held onto his limp hand with both of hers. "What?"

Yuven's pupils tightened into beads and he swung his head around to Gustul. "Speed it up!" he snapped and bared his fangs at their driver. "We need to get both of them back to Sivaport! Those cultists might be right behind us, you have to go faster if you don't want your brother to die!"

"I'm going as fast as the horses can manage, Warden Traye," Gustul threw back.

"Yuven..." Her own tears gathered in her throat.

A chirp left his throat when he jerked in frustration, shifting into a long, nasal hiss when his attention went straight to Reyn. His rage died with a furious wave, and he continued to quietly cry over his limp Oathbound. Adara drove her teeth into her tongue, then broke the silence while the carriage wheels cracked against the stone, "He'll live," she insisted. "He will, Yuven." Her hand dug into the wound again and she brought the ashes back to life with her breath. Kon, if you're still there, take what you need. Take it all if you must, just don't let him cross that bridge. As the flames swirled in her palm, she bit on her tongue when Fenrer overturned his hand again to squeeze hers in response, his breathing returning to a more steady tempo. Through the knolls, Sivaport grew out of the gulf. Gustul blew into a horn as he drove the horses forward, and in response, the walls lit up. He jumped to his feet, balancing himself as the carriage moved.

"Clear the road to the castle!" he bellowed, the voice of giants and caused the shapes of the Housecarls to bolt into the gatehouse.

Her head pounded with power, and she grabbed onto Yuven with her other hand. "They still got their blood," she rasped.

Yuven slid his teeth over his lower lip at her words with a tight nod, but then replied, "At what cost of theirs?" He slumped forward, but kept a hold on Fenrer against his chest. "Had I known Sungrove's magick defenses were on the level of scorched ground to the point it burns the flow... I would've used it as a trap. But I knew nothing." He shook his head back and forth with a quiet sob. "Yes, Adara, they got the blood, but the point of power they sought is burned to ash. It may exist, but the power to be drawn from it will be... limited at best." Yuven snapped his head up when they sped underneath the giant gates built upon granite stone walls. Gustul slammed back down into his seat to guide the horses through the wider streets. People rushed out of the way with the help of housecarls. Children were shepherded back into their homes, unaware.

Adara brushed her hand against Fenrer's clammy cheek.

Into the castle courtyard, Gustul jumped into the back to heave up his brother in his arms. Maria and another person unfamiliar to her rushed out of a different set of doors, offset from the main ones. "Get them down into the castle ward!" the person beside Maria barked as she climbed into the back of the carriage to join them, another housecarl following her. Fenrer heaved into their arms, Adara leaped out of the carriage, shaky on her landing as Yuven sped after them.

Into the warm halls of comfort and safety with the two wounded in varying arms, Bryn kicked open the door to a room full of slabs and strange instruments lining the walls. Adara went to rush forward with Yuven, but she grunted when Maria slammed her hand into hers and Yuven's chest. "You two stay out here," she ordered. "Get yourselves cleaned up."

"Myl'la." Yuven's feathers stood on a frazzled end. "He needed me, he still needs me."

Maria gave him an expression of concerned sympathy, then closed the door on their faces.

It rocked with silence.

He'll be alright. He'll be alright. He's survived before. He can do it again. Beside her, Yuven sank to his knees and released the sobs stuck in her throat, pressing himself against the wall beside the door. He can do it again. I gave him my magick, my all-powerful magick. Her own tears burnt her nose and the corners of her eyes, threatening to reveal her lack of hope, of faith and trust. Of everything she had lost, of everything she had yet to lose, to drift out of her fingertips as she sank beside Yuven, to comfort and for the comfort. His once previous, solid stone persona broke the moment his Oathbound fell, the rapids shaking at her fingers. Though he didn't reject her presence, he did not acknowledge it either. Adara tried to find her tears, tried to let them fall, but her limbs remained numb as she sat against the rough-hewn ground of stone.

He's in the hands of Maria. He'll be fine. He has to be. I have faith.

I believe.